Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded lower against almost all of its major counterparts Friday, as a statement from a President at the Federal Reserve caused concern over monetary policy changes and investors anticipate housing data later in the session.
During U.S. morning trade, the dollar moved lower against the euro, with EUR/USD gaining 0.41% to hit 1.3254.
Sparking the greenback’s decline, President Bullard of the St. Louis Fed stated during a speech in Hong Kong, “With Fed policy currently on pause, it may be a good time to take stock of whether we may be at a turning point. The outlook has improved markedly.”
This statement created concerns that monetary policy may be changing in the world’s largest economy, leading to selling in the U.S. dollar.
Anticipation is running high that the U.S. new home sales report, released later in the session, will indicate an increase to 325,000 annual rate in February. This would mark the fastest growth since December, 2010 further supporting possible change in monetary policy
The greenback was also lower against the pound, with GBP/USD gaining 0.18% to hit 1.5850.
This was despite, a report from the Nationwide Building Society showing that U.K. confidence fell from 44 from 47 in January indicating Briton’s feel more pessimistic about the future.
In addition, the greenback was lower against the yen, with USD/JPY slipping 0.13% to hit 82.43.
Earlier in the week, government data showed that Japan’s trade balance swung into a surplus of JPY32.92 billion in February, confounding expectations for a deficit of JPY120 billion following the downwardly revised deficit of JPY1.47 trillion reported in January.
The dollar was weaker against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF dropping 0.45% to hit 0.9093.
Elsewhere, the greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand cousins, with USD/CAD advancing 0.17% to hit 1.0010, AUD/USD gaining 0.09% to hit 1.0395 and NZD/USD gaining 0.40% to hit 0.8126.
The loonie weakened for the fourth day on a report showing that that Canadian inflation rate increased less than forecasted last month.
Sentiment on the growth linked dollars was also hit on Thursday, after a report showed that China’s HSBC manufacturing index contracted for a fifth successive month in March, sparking concerns over the outlook for global growth.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, traded down 0.42% to hit 79.62.